


To Smush

by DragonflyxParodies



Category: The Witcher (TV), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: BAMF Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg, Ciri just wants her dad to cuddle more people, Cuddly Ciri, Cuddly Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, Gen, Implied Geralt/Yennefer, Protective Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, Weird Witcher Behavior, and implied Geralt/Jaskier, ciri does, dad geralt, ft. jaskier not knowing what smushing is, geralt and his crippling anxiety over physical contact, grandpa vesemir, minor miscommunications
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:34:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27113384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonflyxParodies/pseuds/DragonflyxParodies
Summary: Ciri and her revelations about Geralt's behavior.AKA. Ciri decides her dad needs more smushing in his life.
Relationships: Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon & Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon & Vesemir, Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon & Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg, Eskel & Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia & Jaskier | Dandelion, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia & Lambert, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia & Vesemir, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia & Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg
Comments: 22
Kudos: 110





	To Smush

Geralt, Ciri discovers, _hovers._

He doesn’t realize he does it, she thinks, but he does it _all the time_. And it’s – not the same. Not the same kind of hovering she’s used to, not with guards and plastered smiles and constant ushering _away_ from the fun things, _come now Cirilla, you’ve things to do._

Geralt doesn’t _interfere_. He just watches, gold eyes sharp and tense and body coiled like he’s ready to spring into action at any moment. Hardly even grunts a warning at her when her boot is ready to slip off a wet log or the structure she’s climbing on wobbles.

She’d experimented, early on. He’d caught on – not to his hovering, of course, but to her _testing_ him, and he hadn’t so much as blinked. He’d let her run on ahead or grab a weird plant, and then patiently helped her out of the ditch she’d fallen into or shown her how to make a cream for the blisters on her palm. He hadn’t ever _yelled_.

So, she doesn’t mind it. Makes her a little giddy, honestly, that he _trusts_ her. That he thinks she’s _capable_. Even Grandmother hadn’t, not really. Not about things like this, anyway.

He only stops when she’s within grabbing distance, or smushed up against him. He doesn’t really _initiate_ the smushing, but if she smushes _herself_ against his leg or wriggles under his arm or flops on top of him, he’ll move to hold her back immediately. He lets her climb on him, even ride on his shoulders sometimes. Grandmother had always been very physical with her affections, and even if this isn’t the same thing it feels just as good and it’s _familiar –_ and there’s precious little of that, now.

She kind of assumes, though, that Geralt does it to _everyone_.

And then they reach Kaer Morhen. And the other Witchers. And Yennefer.

Geralt and the other Witchers are funny to watch, because they don’t hoover so much as just bump into each other for a good hour and a half before apparently deciding the others are fine and then resume their own activities as if nothing had happened. They repeat this process every time one of them leaves the fortress. It is _endlessly_ entertaining to watch.

Lambert gets huffy when he catches her giggling after he turned his body into Eskel’s path and the two knocked shoulders. It flies over Eskel’s head, and Geralt’s head, and Vesemir sets aside a whole thirty minutes during one of their lessons for her to pepper him with every question she can think of, the answers to which are mostly _dunno,_ and _its just how we are_ , and _probably the mutagens_. Vesemir follows this session up by ruffling her hair every single time he sees her.

She thinks he probably only meant to do it for a little while, but it’s been two months and it still hasn’t stopped so it probably just rolled its way into their ritual.

Yen is the _only_ person Geralt doesn’t hoover over. He hardly even spares her a glance. And at first Ciri thought it was because he didn’t like her, but Yen _purrs_ at him and Geralt beams whenever he sees her and Lambert can’t lie to save his life so Ciri _knows_ why he doesn’t let her go look for them when the two disappear together.

They fight a lot, though, too. And it isn’t until one of their fights gets _really_ big, and she sees Geralt stop halfway through to very pointedly kick his swords under the nearest table, that she realizes it’s all because _Yen’s stronger than Geralt_.

So. She can handle herself. He doesn’t _have_ to hover.

She could beat _him_. And he _doesn’t mind_.

Which, quite understandably, _blows Ciri’s mind_.

She takes to pestering Yennefer about it and about Witchers and _but aren’t you jealous?_ and discards most of what the sorceress says because she gets a weird look on her face and starts doing that thing where she doesn’t _want_ to give ground but she _definitely_ doesn’t want to be talking right now, so she says whatever comes to mind to get Ciri to _shut up_.

And then the _bard_ shows up.

And.

Ciri’s so overcome with absolute _delight_ she can hardly talk. Because Geralt plasters himself to Jaskier’s side and _does not move_. If he could wear Jaskier’s skin like a cloak, he would. Except he doesn’t _actually_ touch him, and Jaskier doesn’t do the bumping thing the other Witchers do, and so mostly Geralt just follows Jaskier around and doesn’t blink. Yennefer watches this sometimes and makes barbed comments so vague that whatever she means goes over _everyone’s_ heads but Jaskier still puffs himself up and gets irritated and starts firing flowery insults back, which seems to be what Yen wants, so.

Jaskier, she realizes, doesn’t know how to _smush_.

Ciri makes it her mission to teach him.

Pointed eye contact and engaging in smushing behavior does not help. He coos at the two of them, and Geralt kind of _vibrates_ , but nothing changes. Forcing accidental contact does nothing, because Jaskier turns bright red and inevitably ends up flinging himself away while Geralt just stands there _frozen_. Asking Yennefer for help goes nowhere, because she cackles and calls them stupid boys and she’s _right_.

So she demands a fire one night, in a real fire pit, and asks Jaskier to tell spooky stories, and Vesemir squints at her and then ruffles her hair and says sure.

There is a minor hiccup in that Lambert and Eskel and Vesemir and Geralt don’t know what scary is, because when they try to out-spook each other they tell _really stupid_ stories, and they’re professional _monster hunters_ , but they get worked up over it, and so Jaskier doesn’t actually get to tell any _good_ spooky stories.

Once Ciri determines this is Just The Way Things Are, she changes tactics.

Thanks to some minor help from Yennefer, who is watching with no small degree of amusement from the shadows, she has managed to get Jaskier and Geralt on the same log. There is enough space between them for her to sit comfortably, which is a problem.

So she flings herself into Jaskier’s side. This goes unnoticed, except for the brief swing of Geralt’s eyes when Jaskier _oofs._ She puts a finger to her lips, and the bard throws his hands up in the air in surrender. Which is good because he didn’t actually move as far as he needed to. So she turns her back to him and digs her heels in and _pushes_.

“What are you doing?”

“You have to _smush him_.” She growls back, and Jaskier’s face does a funny thing.

“…What?”

“If _you_ don’t smush him, _he_ won’t smush you!”

“…And how do you know this?” He asks faintly.

They’re lucky, because Geralt’s hopped to his feet and has been shouting at Lambert, who is also on his feet and shouting at Eskel, who is also on his feet and shouting at _Geralt_ , since she started her second round of shoving. She scowls at Jaskier and stands up, and then positions herself in Geralt’s orbit. He sways a little, but does not reach out to her. Still scowling, she takes a big step to her right and shoves her weight into Geralt’s leg.

He doesn’t stop shouting, but his hand drops to the top of her head, and he smooths her bangs out of her face. She wraps her arms around his leg. He immediately drops himself to her level, scoops her up, and resumes roaring at his companions over her head. She very pointedly rests her cheek on his shoulder, and _glares_ at the bard.

Jaskier stares for another moment before mouthing _oh_.

Unfortunately she hits another snag, because. Mission successful. She’s taught him how to smush, he knows he has to smush. But Geralt is fire-warm and big and he’s being loud but like this it’s mostly a pleasant vibration against her cheek.

Ciri makes the executive decision that Jaskier can start smushing in the morning, and goes to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> i uuuuuu started this after binging the show. almost a year ago.  
> So.  
> as far as the spooky stories go. they're arguing over what is scarier, except what they find is scary is like...totally mundane stuff. like if ciri were actually there for the stories she'd pass out from boredom. but you bet your ass Geralt's gonna be up and looming over his daughter's bed all night in case some perfume-soaked noble lady who reads too much fiction tries crawling in through the window or something.


End file.
